The only people busier than the scoreboard operator at Smoothie King Center on Friday were the folks who had to peruse the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2014-15 media guide, in an effort to determine all of the new records set by the ballclub vs. Minnesota. It may have been quicker to list the ones that weren’t broken.
Behind an incredible opening-half offensive performance, the Pelicans began establishing records in the first quarter (team-record 43 points) and never let up from there. Some of the other franchise-bests included:
- Most points in a half, 80. Four different Pelicans reached double digits by intermission, led by Anthony Davis’ 16 points. Eight New Orleans players tallied six points or more.
- Highest field-goal percentage in a half, 72.1. The Pelicans made 31 of 43 shots from the floor, including absurd 8-for-9 accuracy from three-point range
- Highest field-goal percentage in a game, 66.7. New Orleans made exactly two-thirds of its 84 attempts.
- Most points in a game, 139. New Orleans scored 43, 37 and 38 points in the first three quarters, respectively, to build a 118-72 entering the final dozen minutes.
- Margin of victory, 48. New Orleans was in front by as many as 53 points over Minnesota.
- Three-pointers in a game, 15 (tying the team record). The Pelicans shot even better from three-point range than inside the arc, connecting on 15 of 20 tries.
"I’ve been in the league 17 years and I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that,” said Wolves Coach Flip Saunders, who’s in his second stint at the helm for Minnesota. “I think I could have put five chairs out on the court and they wouldn’t have shot that well.”
On a night where everyone in a white uniform scored at least one basket, Jrue Holiday turned in one of his best games as a Pelican, tallying 24 points on 9-for-10 shooting. Anthony Davis added 22 points and five other New Orleans players reached double digits, including reserves Austin Rivers (17), Ryan Anderson (16) and Luke Babbitt (12). The hosts improved to 5-3 and have won four of the past five games.
“It was fun,” Holiday said. “We knocked down a lot of jump shots, not even (mostly) layups and in the paint. I think someone said seven guys were in double digits. That’s awesome. It’s not like one guy had 80 points.”
In fairness to the Wolves (2-6), they were playing without point guard Ricky Rubio and did not have key scorer/defender Thaddeus Young, whose mother passed away Thursday. Already one of the NBA’s least experienced teams, Minnesota started two rookies and one second-year pro. New Orleans also effectively swarmed center Nikola Pekovic, who was limited to four points and four rebounds.
“This was a game tonight where we knew what we needed to do,” Anderson said. “We were focused from the beginning. That’s how good this team can be – we didn’t have any slumps. We didn’t let them come back in the game. We pretty much held it where it was. We played well.”
Davis: “We defended. We got the ball out and ran. We wanted to protect homecourt. We weren’t playing (to Minnesota’s) record.”
After the previous four New Orleans games had been decided by single digits, the Pelicans welcomed a one-sided victory. Beginning Monday, they have a four-game Western Conference road trip, to venues where they’ve struggled to win in recent years.
“Games like this are great, because we’re going to have tough games coming up,” Babbitt said. “To be able to feel good about ourselves going into this road trip is big. We’re not satisfied, though. We know we need to get some big wins on this road trip coming up.”
“We’ve been tested – we know what that feels like,” Pelicans fifth-year coach Monty Williams said. “We’ve played one of the toughest NBA schedules this season, just look at the teams we played. I don’t care who it’s against, when you win it builds confidence and our guys are building confidence.”